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The latest economic downturn has refocused attention on risk management – and threatens to shift people's interest away from the previous hot topic, corporate governance. It shouldn't, argues Joy Lee, because in fact corporate governance is a key part of risk management, and companies will come out of this downturn in much better shape if they are transparent from the outset.

India's market regulator seems to be battling with phantoms. It is eight months since the Mumbai-based Security and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) began investigating a stock market scandal (see Asiamoney's June 2001 cover story); at the time, the country's finance minister, Yashwant Sinha, promised parliament that the guilty would not be spared. A wave of arrests and interrogations of some of the key players in the financial markets quickly followed, but the market has yet to be told exactly how the scam took place. The investigations have gone far beyond the ambit of the market watchdog, with several other agencies including the income tax and immigration authorities and a joint parliamentary committee working on it. The investigation into the market scam has become interlinked with another probe into the functioning of www.tehelka.com, a web site that exposed an alleged defence scandal and managed to attract the wrath of the central government.

US company Emerson Electric completed a landmark M&A deal in October when it bought Avansys Power, a telecom and data power conversions provider, from Huawei Technologies. This is the largest 100% acquisition ever between a private Chinese company and a foreign investor. Emerson, advised by JPMorgan, paid Huawei Technologies US$750 million in cash, which will use the capital to boost its core business. "The deal fits the company's long-term strategic plan," says Sara Liu, spokeswoman at Huawei Technologies in its Shenzhen head office. "We would like to concentrate on our core business, which is telecom network solutions, and enhance our position in the sector due to the accelerating competition within the industry worldwide." Huawei Technologies is a private hi-tech enterprise fully owned by its employees.

The long-awaited float of the newly merged Bank of China in Hong Kong may have to wait a little longer. It had been expected that the new bank would list in New York and Hong Kong early next year but, following the US terrorist attacks and the continuing deterioration of the global economy, it looks likely to be delayed. The IPO is definitely still on. The question is when to do so and whether new strategies will be needed. Chairman and president Liu Mingkang of the state-owned parent, the Beijing-headquartered Bank of China, hints as much. In an interview with CNBC Asia weeks after the new entity started doing business, he said: "We are closely monitoring the changes in the market. Since September 11 it's being assessed...It's still too early for us to work out the details of how we can successfully float."

Pacific Century CyberWorks, the company that changed everything in the world of Asian finance last year, has been rather quieter in 2001. But in October it became the first Asian company to complete an international bond issue since September 11, with a ¥30 billion (US$250 million) Euroyen placement guaranteed by its PCCW-HKT telecommunications subsidiary. The deal stands out for more than its timing. This was a 30-year issue – only the third ever from Hong Kong – with a five-year call option held by the issuer (reports that lead manager Merrill Lynch holds the call have been stridently denied). It was priced at par with a coupon of 3.65% and reflects a spread of 280bp over treasuries on a swapped basis, considerably cheaper than the US$4.7 billion syndicated loan that PCCW has been attempting to refinance for much of the year.

The default by Singapore-based Asia Pulp and Paper on US$13.4 billion of debt last year was bad enough. But now, after a year of recriminations and investigations, the ripples of the crisis are spreading far and wide. Caught in the net are the Singapore and New York Stock Exchanges, leading financial lights such as Merrill Lynch, Arthur Andersen and Deloitte Touche Tomatsu, offshore havens like the British Virgin and Cook islands, shareholders all over Asia and even workers in the backblocks of the Indonesian rain forest.

Last month saw Japan's largest asset-backed deal to date, with the securitization of ¥245 billion (US$2 billion) of consumer finance assets originated by the failed Life Company. Acquired by the Japanese consumer loan company Aiful, Life's ¥300 billion worth of assets acted as collateral for Morgan Stanley's ¥273 billion acquisition loan (see Asiamoney, May 2001, Deal Mechanic). Divided into four tranches, the notes achieved ratings from triple A to triple B from four rating agencies: Standard & Poor's, Moody's, Fitch and R&I. This is a first, although as Karl Essig, managing director and Tokyo-based global co-head of Morgan Stanley's securitized products group, notes: "To our mind, there was no reason why this asset class should not have had a triple A rating in the past. Perhaps nobody thought it necessary. Obviously when you have over ¥200 billion worth of securities to move though, it kind of does matter. It dramatically alters the financing costs."

Meet Minsheng Bank: China's only privately-owned financial institution. If accession to WTO means Chinese entrepreneurs stand to benefit from new opportunities, then Minsheng is in a strong position to gain market share from the vastly bigger state-owned banks. By Pauline Loong

"If you can keep your head when all around you are losing theirs, then you're a man, my friend." That's how Deutsche sees its aggressive build-up in Asia under head of equities for Asia (ex-Japan) and Australia, Edouard Peter, who arrived in March. But the market is scratching its head at the awesome scale of Deutsche's ambitions. At a time when equities is a dirty word, Deutsche is building itself into a powerful Asian equities house. Peter has hired 58 staff this year, mostly top-flight salesmen and traders. He swears he'll build the fifth largest broker by market share in Asia ex-Japan within a year, up from, ahem, a 1.2% share last year.

Hutchison's group finance director Frank Sixt, it seems, is not the world's most popular CFO among analysts. When fund managers were recently polled in a follow-up to Asiamoney's annual stockbrokers' poll, allegations were made that he plays favourites with analysts. Bullying telephone calls, and threats to cut off business, were mentioned. Does the amiable and bluff Sixt play the game tougher and harder than one might think? Sixt takes the criticism in his stride, laying the blame squarely on the difficulties of covering Hutch. "We are not an easy group to cover," he says. "We are involved in five major business sectors in 35 different countries, so from an analytical point of view, understanding us is rather like correctly analysing five separate multinationals, and working out whether the sum is greater than the parts.

Salomon Smith Barney has spent big – symbolically big – on two established dealmakers in an attempt to push itself in to the top tier of China investment banking after two years in the wilderness. Do Francis Leung and Margaret Ren have what it takes to rebuild Salomon's bridges? By Chris Wright

On October 10, the Monetary Authority of Singapore announced an easing of monetary policy. But will it soften the sudden and severe downturn in the Singapore economy – its worst recession since independence? And if not, will a bigger dose further down the line help? Opinion is divided. Pauline Loong talks to the key players.